{"id":117280,"date":"2022-06-25T22:19:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T02:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/?p=117280"},"modified":"2022-06-28T17:47:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T21:47:49","slug":"hour-thirteen-life-is-mary-pecaut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/hour-thirteen-life-is-mary-pecaut\/","title":{"rendered":"Hour Thirteen – Life Is Mary Pecaut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hour Thirteen\u00a0 –\u00a0 Life is \u00a0 \u00a0 Mary Pecaut<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Life is what happens when you\u2019re busy making other plans. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u00a0John Lennon<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neither good nor bad – life happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like when Fatima, 17, was diagnosed<\/span><\/p>\n

with Severe Aplastic Anemia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her bone marrow stopped producing blood cells.<\/span><\/p>\n

No red cells, no white cells, no platelets.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was no treatment in Mauritania.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her home, a geographic death sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We traveled the world in search of a cure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her first passport, first time on an airplane –<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman seated next to her\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

touched the bald man\u2019s head in front<\/span><\/p>\n

in order to perform ablutions?<\/span><\/p>\n

First prayer in the skies.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Tunis, another bone marrow biopsy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I bribed armed guards at the blood hospital<\/span><\/p>\n

for packets of liquid gold to transfuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cradling platelet packets, I rocked and sang<\/span><\/p>\n

Gratitude prayers for donors we\u2019d never meet.<\/span><\/p>\n

I added your name to the four year wait list\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

for a stem cell transplant. Of course – Libyans had fled\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

their war. \u00a0 We rocked platelet packets and sang<\/span><\/p>\n

gratitude prayers for donors we would never know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Could your brother be a match for a transplant?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Malaysia, ATG shock and awe –\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An attempt to zap her body into production.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn’t work. <\/span><\/p>\n

She embraced\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Muslim nurses\u2019 fashion – colorful Head scarves with pins,<\/span><\/p>\n

wrote her first English words\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in mashed potatoes <\/span>on the hospital tray<\/span><\/p>\n

thank you<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vietnam platelets were the best – lasted the longest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fatima mastered chopsticks, designed modest clothes,<\/span><\/p>\n

sewed and learned to bow and say, \u2018Xin chao\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the time she reached the NIH, in the US<\/span><\/p>\n

she was a transfusion pro<\/span><\/p>\n

Her brother was the match!<\/span><\/p>\n

The medical team, cleaning staff<\/span><\/p>\n

proposed \u2018\u2018Songs of the Day\u2019 for her intensive<\/span><\/p>\n

care stay. \u00a0 The transplant recovery kids\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

from Childrens\u2019 Inn danced the halls at night,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

as she shuffled, her partner the IV pole.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A three year odyssey of healing<\/span><\/p>\n

The world kept her alive.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hour Thirteen\u00a0 –\u00a0 Life is \u00a0 \u00a0 Mary Pecaut   Life is what happens when you\u2019re busy making other plans. \u00a0\u00a0John Lennon   Neither good nor bad – life happens. Like when Fatima, 17, was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia.\u00a0 Her bone marrow stopped producing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1509,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124186,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117280\/revisions\/124186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}